I just read a mind-boggling blog titled “Should We Shut Down the US Postal Service?” My first thought…. “You have got to be kidding me.” Of course, the well-researched author provides a litany of facts, statistics, and projections of the services provided by the USPS, the employee cost, and where the money comes from. After reading most of the hard data, it would appear that shutting the USPS would indeed be the most sensible idea. We can do it! We have the tools! We have the resources! This is America! We can do anything!
Really?
The author starts by quoting himself from a previous article in which he stated:
“Another thing that is not going to happen is the prompt and thrifty dissolution of the U.S. Postal Service as we know it. There are just too many jobs — the Postal Service has 563,000 employees — and a shrinking but still vocal group of holdouts who insist they do not need a computer, For them, we will waste years and billions, maybe trillions, of dollars on a barely breathing product.”
I’m not buying it. Not only must we acknowledge the shrinking number of “holdouts” who are computer-less, but also, we must acknowledge the rest of the world. Perhaps I am not as researched and as versed in world communications as the author, but I dare to say that I represent a regular, every day, run of the mill, American. Wouldn’t closing the USPS change the way that American’s communicated with the rest of the world as well? Aren’t we a melting pot to third-world countries where third graders don’t have laptops, cell phones, iPods, or email addresses? How do the people we welcome in on Ellis Island communicate with families back home? What about the reality of poor, famine-struck families here in the United States that can barely purchase food, much less, purchase a computer and seek the education to use it? I’m afraid that until our economic outlook improves, the possibility to improve upon what the USPS can offer the masses is bleak.
Maybe it’s a public image issue? When was the last time you saw the USPS get a facelift and change their perception in the eyes of everyday America? (Perhaps the same could be said for your business!)
Regardless, I feel there are so many other reasons in my gut not to close the USPS. I still don’t see the USPS as a barely breathing product. If you agree, help me think of another reason why we should be opposed to this notion. I’d love to hear it, and to have it in my arsenal. Or you can mail your thoughts to me. I still get mail for now!
